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Thursday, August 15, 2013

To Slip Out

Henry: My sister went into labor this
morning, so I left it on vibrate in case she had the baby while I was in class.

Randy: Did she?

Henry: Yeah. My mom called to tell me the good news. I tried to slip out quietly.

Randy: Oh, the teacher noticed. As soon as you left, he gave us a pop quiz, saying
that you'd miss points for answering your phone during class.

Henry: Oh no!

Meaning:
The phrase “slip out” means to leave a place quietly without being noticed. It has a similar meaning to "sneak out,"
although "sneak out" implies you are doing something wrong
("slip out" is neutral). In the example, Randy tried to slip out of
the classroom to answer his phone; however, he wasn't successful at being
unnoticed. Look at another example:

Maria: Where do you want to sit?

Anthony: I like to sit on the aisle at
movies.

Maria: Really? I normally try to sit in the middle so I can
see the center or the screen.

Anthony: Yeah, I think most people do, but
I prefer the aisle so I can slip out
if I need to go to the restroom.

Maria: That's a good idea. I hate having to walk past people during the
movie.

In this case, Anthony sits on the aisle during movies so he
can quietly leave, or "slip out", of the theater to use the
restroom. Notice that in this example, Anthony isn't
doing anything wrong, so you probably wouldn't "sneak out" in this
situation.

This idiom is from LSI's new edition of "Reading
Horizons," which will be used in the Level 6 Reading classes. For more
information, please visit http://www.languagesystems.com/